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Jonathan Stark is on a mission to raise up his Jersey community in support of Virunga National Park.

Many people have asked how they can support the park in a meaningful way. We believe wholeheartedly that a single individual can be the spark that makes a difference. Jonathan Stark is one of these people.

Jonathan wanted to help Virunga. He lives on the small island of Jersey between England and France and works for the Durrell Wildlife Park. With the help of our Virunga staff, Jonathan created the “Jersey Friends of Virunga” with the mission to gain a commitment from the Jersey community to help protect a specific sector of Virunga National Park.
The goal is to raise enough money for the annual running costs of the Mikeno Sector – home of our mountain gorillas - by encouraging local businesses and individuals to make an annual pledge and raise approximately £64,300 per year.

The new Jersey Friends of Virunga website. Click on the picture to go to the website.

Last Wednesday, the Jersey Friends of Virunga (JFoV) kicked things off with publicity in the local papers, the launch of the new website, and an event at Durrell that included an introduction of the project and an auction to raise money. Sarah Bendelow, who is from Jersey and works for Virunga National Park, introduced the Jersey Friends of Virunga concept of uniting the island community in support of the rangers of the Mikeno sector, where 200 of the worlds 800 remaining critically endangered mountain gorillas live.  The auction of Virunga merchandise, many of which traveled all the way from Congo, made a nice profit for the park.

Sarah Bendelow introducing the concept of Friends of Virunga to the people of Jersey.

Jonathan was very happy with the evening launch of the project.  “All in all it was a great night, raising around £600 for the park whilst helping to spread the message of Virunga to a wider audience. Like I’ve said before, all great journeys must begin with a single step and after the interest generated by the opening night I think we can attract real support from Jersey for this amazing national park.”

If you would like to start a similar project in your own community, please contact us by responding below in the comments, or sending us an email at  info at gorilla.cd. The park is facing a financial crisis. Imagine if hundreds of people like Jonathan, like you, were able to raise up supporters for the park in their own community. You could change the world from your own home.

The widow of ranger Michel Imanirafasha who died last Friday in an attack.

The recent attack on a park’s vehicle causing the death of two more rangers is yet another reminder of the price rangers and their families pay to protect Virunga for the benefit of us all. Rangers put themselves in harm’s way on a daily basis for what the rest of us pay for a cup of coffee — and not a latte or frappuccino, but an ordinary cup of coffee.

This is the unfortunate reality of running a 7,800 square kilometer national park primarily on donations from the international community. Although it’s not possible to pay rangers more, we are trying to find a way to better take care of them when they are gravely injured, as well as provide for their families in the event they are killed. Probably the best way to do this is for each of us to look at our discretionary spending (coffee, movies, dinners out, etc.) and see if we can shave off just a little and direct it toward those paying the ultimate price to save Virunga.

Today, as you enjoy safety and relative economic stability in your respective countries, please take a minute to truly contemplate what the widows and children of rangers Michel Imanirafasha and Philippe Nzabonimpa are going through. Heartbreaking loss, fear, uncertainly, exposure are probably but a few of the words that would describe their feelings. Now consider what a monthly donation could do to make their situations more bearable. A donation of $30.00 per month will prevent an entire ranger family from spiraling into abject poverty. Too much for some of you? OK, whatever works. When families in Congo survive on $1.50 a day, clearly any amount helps. I know, talk can be cheap, so today I am personally going to sign up to support a ranger family for $30.00 a month. I hope some of you will join me in giving our dedicated rangers and their families the support they have earned. We are committed to providing each of the nearly 150 widows with this support per month, but we can’t do it without your help.

In the coming weeks, I will be setting up a formal Widows and Rangers Fund page on the website. The page will provide updates on our progress to secure funding for all widows and their families, progress on rangers recovering from their injuries, and the life stories of rangers killed while protecting Virunga National Park. Thank you all for reading this plea for help. Please remember, without the rangers there would be no Virunga.

*If you wish to support a widow for $30 per month, write 1 in the “Support for Ranger Widows” box under monthly donations to the right of this blog, and click on the “Donate” button.

A Virunga National Park ranger tears apart an illegal charcoal kiln in the forest. The cutting of trees to make charcoal is destroying the forests - the natural habitat of mountain gorillas - and causing danger to gorillas and rangers. Photo by ©Brent Stirton/Getty Images

We need your help. The charcoal trade inside our park forests must be eradicated and this requires the funding of several anti-charcoal operations needed soon.

The illegal charcoal business is one of the greatest issues Virunga faces, largely kept in place by FDLR Rwandan militia, and directly connected to the protection of the mountain gorillas. Not only is precious forest and habitat destroyed to make charcoal, but past events have shown that both gorillas and rangers can get caught in the crossfire of a battle for this fuel source. At the end of 2009, a huge push took place to remove the charcoal business from the forests of southern Virunga. It was largely successful, but not permanent.

Read about the gorilla massacre of 2007 and the connection to the illegal charcoal industry. Through the efforts of the rangers and the anti-charcoal operations, the park now has greater control over protecting the forests, but it is VITAL that the operations continue in order to control this problem.

We are again trying to stop the rising production of charcoal and destruction of the forests. You may recall that in April, an FDLR ambush on a patrol killed Magayane, one of our rangers. Following this tragic loss, we planned and executed a fairly successful operation to find and destroy as many charcoal kilns as possible.

Now it is becoming necessary to continue with several more operations to stop those that remain. The smoke can be seen now coming up through the trees – the sign of burning wood from kilns. For security reasons, we can’t tell you when or where the operation will be, but will post a report when it is completed.

Illegal charcoal from Virunga’s forests is confiscated by rangers. Photo by ©Brent Stirton/Getty Images

Operational costs for the park are running thin. We need your help to carry out these additional operations that logistically cost more, including additional rangers transported in from other sections of the park, extra rations, clean water, and ponchos for the 5-8 days. Extra tents are needed as the men will have to sleep under tarps in the forest without them. The 60-100 rangers work extremely hard during these campaigns, rising at 2 am, getting into positions, and moving into the forest at day break, patrolling and searching until dark for up to 8 days.

Please consider supporting the park by donating toward this upcoming anti-charcoal operation which we estimate will cost approximately $2900. To the right of this blog post, you can see a list of donation options. At the bottom of the “One-Time” donation list, click on “Anti-Charcoal Campaign” to help us with this specific project.

Thank you again for all the incredible support that you, our readers, have given to the park!

In 2008, the charcoal problem was so serious you could see lines of people moving on trails through the forests carrying white bags of charcoal. Each bag represents trees destroyed for fuel. Photo by ©Brent Stirton/Getty Images

All photos taken prior to 2009 anti-charcoal campaign.

We have just learned that our iGorilla App for iPhones has recently received two notable awards! Check out the links below, and if you haven’t seen this app before and are interested in supporting the park through your purchase of this app, click HERE to go to the iTunes store to purchase.

Platinum Award for Best Education App – 41st Creativity International Awards

Gold Mobile Apps [Education] – Horizon Interactive Award

The app was developed - at zero cost to us - by I-SITE, a US-based company that designs websites and interactive media. Thank you to Ian, Jonathan and the rest of the team!

From Liliane, Communications Assistant:

We paid a visit to Ranger Semivumbi’s home today to tell him about the campaign to fund the critical leg operation he needs in Rwanda (click here to read his story).

Liliane shows Semivumbi the blog post.

Words could not express Semivumbi’s feelings when he heard about the campaign and the incredible generosity of numerous people worldwide who gave money to help him. I showed him the blog post, and he promised to come back from Rwanda healthy and fit.

Semivumbi is given the check for his operation.

He will be traveling to Rwanda today to meet his doctor tomorrow for the first diagnostic.He received the check for the operation at the Virunga office in Goma, and couldn’t believe that it was really happening. He will be taken to Kigali by Christian, one of our staff, who will take care of him while in the hospital.

We are so grateful to all of you who gave so generously toward Semivumbi’s operation and assure you that he now knows each of your donations. We will keep you posted on the situation when he gets to the hospital.

Semivumbi’s family.

Since posting the blog about our ranger, Semivumbi, who needs an operation to save his leg, many of you have generously given toward the cause and we have come close to reaching the goal in just five days! We are so grateful for people like you who care about our rangers and their well being.

Although preparations are being made for Semivumbi’s transfer to Rwanda and the operation, we we have not yet reached the goal to cover the major part of estimated costs. If you have not yet donated, please consider joining others in the effort to save Semivumbi’s leg with this vital operation, and give him a chance at a normal life.

To the right of this blog post under one-time donations, you can give to this cause. Thank you again for your incredible response!

Semivumbi Bizimana is an experienced Virunga ranger with more than 20 years of duty spent for the cause of nature conservation. Injured by rebels while on a patrol in 2008, he is now facing the possibility of losing his leg unless he receives a major operation in Rwanda. We need your help to make this happen.

Semivumbi joined the Congolese Wildlife Conservation Institute in 1989 as a 1st class guard assigned to Lulimbi scientific station close to the Ugandan border. During the years of wars (1996-2003) he and his colleagues defended the Park from rebels by paying sometimes with their own lives and often without receiving any pay.

When he was transferred to the Rwindi station in April 2008, his main job as a principal ranger involved reinforcement operations to tackle the FDLR and Mai-Mai rebel invasions of the park. A few months later Semivumbi participated in a wide anti-charcoal operation in the Nyamulagira Volcano sector.

“We had been called from Rwindi to assist our colleagues in tracking the rebels and their local accomplices engaged in illegal charcoal activities,” Semivumbi explains. “We were many that day, some 150 I think, and left in the night at 2 AM from Rumangabo for Nyamulagira.”

From the witness of his colleague Ephrem Balole who was with him that night on 28th July 2008, it was a good day because the size and the unforeseeable arrival of the rangers took the rebels by surprise and allowed them to dismantle several charcoal kilns and arrest many.

Unfortunately, three rangers were wounded during the operation and Semivumbi was seriously injured from a bullet to his right leg. “I was transported to Rumangabo station, then taken by vehicle to Goma hospital in a couple of hours, which felt for me like a long time.” Read the full story »

Frankfurt Zoological Society is a partner of Virunga National Park, working on several projects including habituating chimpanzees in Tongo, and assisting displaced pygmies living near the southeastern boundary of the park.

By Radu Dumitraşcu/Frankfurt Zoological Society

I left the pygmy camp outside the eastern border of Virunga National Park, touched by the singing and dancing of these forgotten people of North Kivu. But above all, I left feeling a sense of urgency. The pygmies had made a simple request: they wanted blankets and kitchen pots. They needed much more.

The pygmies are currently living in improvised tents.

They tell me that pygmies were the first inhabitants of this land, but now they live in improvised tents, without access to social services, making a meager living through sporadic day jobs here and there. The roofs of their tents can’t stop the rain from pouring inside and nights get pretty chilly around here.

A pygmy tent.

The wars and political instability of the past few decades have put these people at the bottom of the priority list in Congo. Frankfurt Zoological Society has identified about 1,250 Batwa pygmies who illegally occupy land near the Mikeno gorilla sector of Virunga.

As part of the Forgotten Parks initiative, Frankfurt Zoological Society has acquired land for these people to legally live on. With funding from the World Bank, we will build houses for the Batwa pygmy community, as well as health posts and schools; these facilities will serve both the pygmy community as well as the Bantu (non-pygmy Congolese).  We currently support pygmy children with the provision of school equipment and uniforms. Their teachers tell us they are doing well in school.

Pygmy school children

We are currently working with partner pygmy NGOs to help pygmies find their new position in Congolese mainstream society, while also being sensitive to cultural differences. We will provide them with training in agriculture, bee-keeping, and small-animal rearing. In a year’s time they will have a brand new cultural centre where their folklore, traditions, dances and songs will be preserved, and where visitors will be able to experience first hand an ancient culture, generating revenue to the community.  More importantly, it will boost their morale and their sense of self-value as a distinct ethnic group in the DRC.

Pygmies dance for Radu.

Fostering healthy communities that surround the park can only benefit Virunga; decreasing forest dependency will help towards the protection and conservation of the park. This initiative reflects FZS and Virunga’s comprehensive approach to nature conservation; it is about people as well as wildlife.

For additional information please contact Radu at  radu at fzs.org

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It has been an exciting 3 days. With our specialist team of “marketing experts”: Balemba, Piet and myself, represented Virunga National Park at the tourism trade fair in Arusha last weekend.

The place of the event.

We did some serious networking and talked to many interested potential visitors. Thanks to LuAnne, Philippa and Sara, we had very nice promotional materials and people were impressed with what we had to offer.

Promotional materials.

This was one of the first steps in a larger and long term marketing plan for the park and was mainly aimed at informing people Virunga exists and is an amazing destination. On the other hand it served a a perfect networking platform to meet tour operators in Eastern Africa that would be among the primary suppliers of our visitors.

Check out some of the pictures of our stand and us handsome men representing it…

From left: Piet, Balemba and Cai.

Next on the agenda will be a shared (Congolese) stand at the London fair in November.

For the last two weeks, the bloodhound dog training program has been underway with supervision and training from Marlene Zähner, from Switzerland who runs what is probably the world’s leading bloodhound “mantrailing” centre in the World.  She has set up our canine unit and has been offering her expertise pro bono for several months now.

Marcel and Uschi Maierhofer came all the way from the German police special branch to help with the CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) training for the dogs and handlers, which has been a wonderful education in developing professional crime prevention skills amongst our rangers. We hope that the new tactics will make it much easier for us to stop the poaching in the park. See what you think…

Uschi and our ranger handlers, Shamavu, Kasereka and Alex walking with the puppies

Debriefing after the exercise

Marcel shows how to secure and handle a scent article, which a hound uses to fix a scent which can be followed over incredible distances for several days until the suspect is apprehended.

Starting exercise for lila, one of the 6 puppies

How to use the camera and take pictures with Patrice, the training coordinator

Kasereka and Sebiheri preserving scent articles at a simulated crime scene

The Congohound K9 Unit for Virunga